Awesome Flying

Built for air-to-air combat, the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor is an incredibly agile and fast military aircraft. Members of the U.S. Air Force F-22 Raptor Demo Team show off just a little bit of what these planes are capable of in the hands of skilled pilots. They also posted a 360º video which is a bit more immersive.

Skydiving expert Angus Sellen takes us on a death-defying flight through some incredibly rocky ravines of Shark’s Tooth Mountain in New Zealand. The fisheye perspective of his GoPro MAX camera captured a truly immersive visual that’ll have you holding on for dear life.

Take a scenic flight through the Austrian Alps with former Red Bull Air Race World Champion Matthias Dolderer, as he spins his single-seat stunt plane between snow-capped mountains as sunlight casts dramatic shadows across his wings and cockpit.

Over the years, there have been many attempts to create a car that could fly, but most of them have failed to go into production. KleinVision hopes to break that streak with their AirCar, a transforming vehicle that recently took its maiden flight, going from driving mode to flying mode with ease.

While enjoying a tranquil tandem paraglider flight over Andalucia, the folks from Skywings Adventures made a new friend while airborne. We’re impressed that the pilot didn’t drop his selfie stick when a huge vulture momentarily landed on it.

Researchers in London, England used a fascinating method to view the aerodynamic properties of flight. Using helium-filled soap bubbles, they were able to visualize the vortices created by birds’ wings, and made interesting observations about the role their tail feathers play in flight. Details here.

Builder Tom Stanton attached a long vertical LED light bar to his drone, and managed to fly it horizontally to capture some cool long-exposure images. His design is based on Ivan Miranda’s light bar, but you might be able to pull off something similar with a Pixelstick.

Would firing a bullet inside of an airplane really cause explosive decompression? Could an airplane’s toilet suck your intestines out? Does autopilot fly a plane all by itself? Mental Floss host Justin Dodd takes a look at these and other myths and mistaken beliefs about flight.

Despite their size, insects feature some incredibly sophisticated organic engineering. Using high-speed macro photography, Ant Lab shows off the way that eight different types of bugs take to the air. That plume moth looks a little drunk when it takes off.

(PG-13: Language) Those videos they show you at the beginning of commercial flights cover a few basic things about safety, but avoid the nitty gritty details. This clip from tourism expert Doug Lansky offers some much more practical advice for surviving an airplane emergency, based on details from an active commercial pilot.

It’s pretty easy to build a primitive rocket using a bottle of pressurized water. The guys at FliteTest wanted to see if they could take the idea to the next level by making a water-powered glider they could steer via remote control once it was airborne.

Completely revamped from top to bottom, Microsoft Flight Simulator aims to be the most realistic aviation sim ever. The game includes data from over 2 million cities around the globe, rendered in incredible detail, with 4K and HDR support, along with real-time atmospheric and weather conditions. Coming to Windows 10, 8.18.20.

When we were kids, we had one of those wind-up toys that launched a flying propellor into the air. Aerospace engineer Tom Stanton wanted to see what he could do if he ramped up the energy by spinning up a larger (and more dangerous) version of the propellor flywheel using a motor.

Jessica Ambats is passionate about both photography and aviation, and she’s quite the talent behind the lens. Her 160-page book features some of the spectacular images she’s captured over the past 15 years, with a unique focus on pilots who own and fly their own jets. Available as a digital download or hardcover.

Take a soothing 360º flight through the snowy and scenic mountains of British Columbia, Canada. Helicopter pilot Bradley Friesen and videographer Devin Olsen captured more than 50 minutes of their flight using a GoPro MAX action camera. It’s even more immersive if you’ve got a VR headset to watch it on.

Military flight scenes in movies can be incredibly thrilling. But are the actions that movie pilots take realistic or tactically sound? The guys from GQ enlisted the help of former Navy fighter pilot Matthew “Whiz” Buckley to evaluate the veracity of scenes from movies like Pearl Harbor and Top Gun.

The Thunderbirds and Blue Angels paid tribute to America’s healthcare workers and first-responders with an awe-inspiring flyover of New York City. While piloting Thunderbird 2, Major Trevor Aldridge captured this amazing footage out of his cockpit as they flew along the East River.

Whenever we fly, we just assume that the runway is long enough for our airplane to safely take off and land. But what would happen if you tried to use the world’s shortest airstrip with the world’s largest commercial jets? Aviation hobbyist Swiss001 decided to try just that using a flight simulator.

From the invention of the wheel to landing on the Moon, humans have accomplished many great things. Not all achievements are as world-changing, like the time truck driver Larry Walters floated 16,000 feet into the sky after attaching dozens of weather of balloons to his lawnchair. Half as Interesting shares his story.

In a first, Jetman Dubai pilot Vince Reffet combined both hovering and high-altitude aerobatic maneuvers in the same flight, as he took off over the water then headed towards the beachfront skyscrapers of the big city. During his 3-minute journey, he reached a peak altitude of more than 5900 feet, with speeds approaching 250 mph.

Over the years, we’ve seen a couple of drones that could carry a person, but none of them were designed for speed. FliteTest visited with the guys at the Drone Champions League (DCL), who built a single-person flyer with a Formula One cockpit for maximum speed. For now, they’re only flying it with a dummy, but it is awesome.

There are thousands of videos out there showing how to make a potato cannon. But this clip from The Backyard Scientist shows how to use one to launch a glider. Working with his pal Joe – with a nod to the guys at FliteTest – they work out the most balanced and airworthy glider design.

Making homebrew drones can be quite tricky due to the precise balance and weight requirements of smooth flight. But thanks to the consistency of LEGO parts, Brick Experiment Channel was able to put together a reasonably stable – if somewhat fragile – LEGO flying machine using off-the-shelf motors and rotors.